Crannóggy Island

  Introduction The British Government is actively considering the use of chemical castration - the administration of libido-suppressing drugs - for certain sex offenders as part of wider criminal-justice reforms aimed at reducing re-offending and alleviating prison overcrowding. British Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has announced plans to extend a scheme employing selective serotonin-re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and anti-androgens (i.e. chemical castration), to reduce sexual offending and is contemplating making the “treatment” mandatory for high-risk offenders (paedophiles and rapists), including those on suspended sentences. The proposal has two principal elements: Voluntary participation – Offenders may elect to undergo chemical castration within a structured rehabilitation programme and, by demonstrating commitment, earn credits towards early release. Mandatory treatment – Compulsory administration is being explored for the most se...

Something a bit different ....   Introduction Of late I’ve been contemplating more and more the tension between the beauty and cruelty of nature; the beauty and cruelty that exists too between people. As I watch my grandchildren grow, I wonder how the world will treat and shape them, and I try to reconcile my belief in a good and caring God with a God who allows a world where survival so often demands suffering, competition, and death? Where humans, created in His image, inflict so much suffering on one another. Theologians and philosophers have wrestled with this since the dawn of human self-awareness. However, this is not the place for me to review the various “solution.” I want to offer something more experiential. Jesus’ teaching about sparrows and God’s love (Matthew 10: 29-31), doesn’t explain suffering - it affirms God's intimate awareness  within  it. God does not promise to remove every sorrow, but to be present in the smallest lives, in the falling of a sin...

Personally, I rather like the look of the new Pope and appreciated the devote way he celebrated his first Papal Mass, his early homilies and his general manner.  Well, I’ve read numerous articles on Pope Leo XIV – most being preoccupied with whether he’s a “conservative” or a “progressive.” It’s a debate dominated by American social media. Many comments posted on sites - both “conservative” and “progressive”- fill me with unease about the condition of the Church. But, then I remind myself, social media and the divisiveness and the competing echo-chambers these sites encourage, is not representative of ordinary Catholics nor of the world-wide Church.  That all said, and despite its 'click bait' title, this article in the European Conservative by Sebastian Morello caught my eye and whilst written from a traditionalist perspective, impressed as well-balanced and insightful. Enjoy …. it's unedited ...  Pope Leo XIV a Secret Conservative? So far, the signs are good. Bisho...

 As  Aleteia  commented: Beautiful : There's hardly another word for Pope Leo XIV's first Mass. The vibrant colours of the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel contrasted with the dazzling white vestments of row after row of cardinals, punctuated in places by a brightly-dressed cardinal of the Eastern Churches. The perfectly intoned melodies of the men and boys of the Sistine Chapel choir and the precise careful movements of the monsignors in charge of papal ceremonies. It is the Church in all her splendor, proud and joyous with her new Successor of Peter. The new Pope then began his first homily in English: I begin with a word in English -- and the rest is in Italian -- but I want to repeat the words from the Responsorial Psalm: "I will sing a new song to the Lord because he has done marvels." And indeed not just with me but with all of us, my brother cardinals, as we celebrate this morning, I invite you to recognize the marvels that the Lord has done, the blessings th...

From the New Catholic Register The greatest pre-conclave homily was preached by St. John Paul II in 1978, on the Gospel where Christ asks Peter three times, ‘Do you love me?’ — the same Gospel heard in churches around the world this Sunday. Pope John Paul II prays during Mass at Etchmiadzin, Armenia, on Sept. 27, 2001. On the Sunday before the conclave begins, a good many cardinals will visit their “titular churches” in Rome. This Sunday they will have a Gospel text that should inspire their preaching as they ready themselves to elect a new pope. The assigned reading for this Sunday is John 21:1-19. Jesus asks Peter three times to profess his love, and three times confers upon him the mission of caring for the entire flock — “feed my lambs, tend my sheep.” As it is the assigned reading for Sunday Mass all over the world, homilists everywhere will likely preach about Peter’s primacy. Every cardinal, upon receiving the red hat, is assigned a church in Rome, becoming, as it were, the loca...